Honest & Detailed Reencle Prime Review: The One Electric Compost Bin I Recommend

This post is part of a series I’ve written on electric compost bins over the last several years. I’ve tried several in my own home and reviewed them in detail. Check out the full series of posts for more information on using electric compost bins in everyday family kitchens. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, and I was gifted this product by Reencle. However, I received the product without commitment to review or share it, except at my discretion. All thoughts are my own. 

I never thought I’d say this but… I found an electric kitchen composter I like! Over the last few years, I’ve been quite the critic of electric food waste bins. I still don’t like most of them on the market for various reasons. However, I’ve been using and testing the Reencle Prime electric composter since October 2023, and it changed my tune on the feasibility of electric kitchen composters finding a home in mass-market food waste systems. Let’s dive into my honest and detailed Reencle Prime review.

What is the Reencle Prime? 

The Reencle Prime (rhymes with ankle) is an electric compost bin suitable for residential use in everyday kitchens. It is a well-established product in Korea that is gaining popularity in the United States and in more than 20 other countries worldwide to help reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills. 

How does the Reencle Prime work?

The machine uses ReencleMicrobe™, a specific aerobic bacteria that processes food waste at managed temperatures in the bin. There are no grinders or shredders, only paddles that slowly churn through the organic matter to provide aeration and assist odor management features. You can see more about how it works on the Reencle website. 

After setting up the appliance and letting the bacteria settle into the machine, you can add up to about 2 pounds of food each day while the machine decomposes the matter. As the contents accumulate, you scoop out some of the finished product to ensure that the total volume of matter in the bin stays within the minimum and maximum lines denoted inside the machine. 

Why I like it: This process felt much easier and more streamlined than other electric food waste bins operated with discrete cycles during which you could not add food scraps. The difference might seem small, but the cadence felt significantly easier to manage when adding and removing organic matter from the Reencle Prime than other electric kitchen bins I’ve used. (This is one of the most significant experiential benefits I found.)

What is the Reencle Prime finished product (i.e. compost)?

No electric food waste bin produces true, stable compost like in a cured backyard bin or commercial composting facility. But the Reencle Prime incorporates an aerobic bacteria, the lifecycle of which is managed (in part) by precise temperature controls in the bin, to create a finished output that’s more stable and suitable for soil amendment than the competitors I’ve reviewed.

All other kitchen food waste machines are more akin to dehydrators and grinders than composters. They do little to stabilize the output into something like soil amendment. Reencle sent their finished compost to the Penn State Extension Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory for testing to determine how close it was to high-quality finished compost. The brand representative sent me the reports for my review. 

On a scale of less than 1 to greater than 11 (where a lower number indicates more stability and more suitability to be considered pure compost), the Reencle output was rated at 2.2 and 2.4. Anything 2 and lower is considered stable, moderately well-cured compost, so it just missed that rating. 

I’m not going to pretend to understand the ins and outs of the scientific testing, but the rating is pretty darn close to stable compost (and a far cry from dehydrated food scraps that turn back into stinky muck when rehydrated). We can conclude that this finished product is more useful and usable to everyday at-home composters than most of the output from other electric kitchen bins. 

How much does the Reencle Prime cost? 

At the time of writing, the Reencle Prime costs $499. Alternatively, you can subscribe and pay $35 per month to use it. There is a Reencle Community Facebook group where some users mention the ability to subscribe for some time and then convert that subscription to purchase (at a discounted price relative to the $499 market price). That is not advertised on their site, so I’m not sure about the details or longevity of that offer, but I like the option for customers. 

The Reencle Prime is similar in price to other electric food waste bins, and I appreciate that there is an option to buy it. I don’t particularly care for subscription-only options because they’re too easy to forget about and continue paying even if you no longer use the product. 

Additionally, it’s primarily a piece of hardware, so once a buyer pays a price that includes a reasonable profit for the vendor, they shouldn’t still be paying for the use of the product. Most of us would find it silly to subscribe to things like a refrigerator, dishwasher, or trash can, so why would we subscribe to a food waste processor? 

The companies offering subscriptions without outright purchase options suggest that a subscription pays for repairs and maintenance. Are they not made well enough to last a reasonable amount of time that minimal one-time maintenance expenses can be covered for less than a monthly subscription fee? 

Furthermore, you don’t subscribe to rent a dishwasher to receive detergent refills for “free,” so why subscribe in perpetuity to a food waste processing machine to get “free” carbon filter refills once or twice a year? (Hint: Subscriptions are more profitable for the company, which means customers pay for more value than they are getting.)

In short, payment plans over time make sense for customers, provided they have a predetermined end date. Subscriptions in perpetuity for tangible appliances are not my jam.

How much energy does the Reencle Prime use? 

According to the representative from Reencle, the Reencle Prime uses about 52 watts of energy per hour (roughly half of what an average refrigerator uses). This amounts to about 37.5 kWh per month. It runs continuously to monitor and maintain ideal decomposition, temperature, and odor management conditions. 

It will differ for each household, but that represented a 1.5-3% increase in our home’s monthly energy use over the last several months. Based on our electricity rates, this costs us about $6.00 – $6.50 per month. This isn’t an ideal additional cost, and it’s best to use options that don’t require additional energy. But that’s not available to everyone, and all composting processes use some amount of energy. 

Composting at home in a backyard bin will almost always be a better option because it provides a more finished final product and is generally less expensive than the machine plus the additional energy use. But if that is not an option for you, this energy use is a worthwhile environmental trade-off to sending food waste to the landfill (a process with its own large greenhouse gas footprint in the form of transportation, processing, and methane emissions). 

Where can you store the Reencle Prime? 

The Reencle Prime is not small. It can fit on a countertop (that’s how some people prefer to use it), but I think it’s a little large to put on my counter. We store ours on the floor near our kitchen (similar to a trash can).

It has a feature that opens automatically if it senses motion in front of it. You can turn it off if you walk by it often. I would likely turn it off if we had small children or pets who might get curious about what’s inside. But it’s easy enough to use on a counter or the floor, depending on what works best for you. 

Is the Reencle Prime noisy? 

The Reencle Prime is silent for the most part. From time to time, the paddles groan as they rotate through the organic matter to aerate the contents. It doesn’t bother me, though my husband isn’t a fan if he’s sitting in the same room as the machine. Maybe don’t store it next to where you sleep if you’re sensitive to sounds. Aside from that, I doubt you’ll notice it. It’s much quieter than the Lomi and the FoodCycler. 

My sister, who also has a Reencle, recently told me that her Reencle groaned when it was dry or near the maximum capacity line. When she added some water, the groaning stopped. I tried her suggestion, and it seems to be working for me, too. I’ll repot back if that changes.

Why is Reencle better than other electric compost bins? 

I delve into details more specifically below, but in short, it does everything just a little bit better than other electric compost bins (most of which are just food dehydrators and grinders). It is not perfect, but I think it’s by far the best option on the market, and the benefits outweigh the costs more than its competitors. 

Most specifically, it outperforms other electric composters’ processing methods and finished output usability. The continuous processing cadence makes it much easier to use than other electric composters. Also, it produces a more finished and stable output that can more easily be used locally and without additional mechanical processing or transportation resources. 

Reencle vs. other electric food waste bins

Let’s compare the Reencle to the other brands I’ve tried and researched. I owned a Lomi and a FoodCycler for over a year, experimenting with them for quite some time before passing them on to others because they didn’t work for us. 

I haven’t owned a Mill bin, but I’ve done extensive research on the product and how it works, and I shared my full review here about why I think it’s maybe the silliest option of them all (at least if you’re planning to send your food waste through the mail). 

Reencle vs. Lomi

I owned a Lomi electric food waste bin for about a year. When I first purchased it, I used it consistently to decide if I liked it as a stand-alone kitchen food waste solution. After that, it collected dust on my counter for many months. I was not a fan. 

I haven’t written a full review of Lomi, but I discussed in detail why I think most electric composters are a waste of money (and those reasons are mostly feedback on the Lomi). The Reencle solves most of these problems, making it a much better candidate for everyday home use. Here’s why: 

Processing (Reencle vs. Lomi)

The Lomi processes one batch of food waste at a time. The bucket is small, and the machine takes several hours to process each batch. The bucket must be cleaned after each use, which often requires dislodging various food waste items from the grinder that got stuck during processing. It’s a rather tedious process. 

Consequently, there are extended periods (sometimes an entire day) during which you cannot add new food scraps to the appliance. It’s not hard to collect food scraps in a bowl or a plastic bag until the bucket is clean and ready for a new batch. For our family of four, we had nearly enough food scraps to fill the bucket by the time it was ready for its next batch. So using the Lomi felt like a continuous but choppy (no pun intended) process of “collect, process, clean, and repeat.”

Noise (Reencle vs. Lomi)

The Reencle occasionally makes low groaning noises as the paddles slowly churn through the food scraps and finished product, but they’re pretty quiet. The Lomi was much louder. It has a louder continuous hum from the motor and some unnerving sounds during the grinding process if something doesn’t get processed quite right. 

Output (Reencle vs. Lomi)

No electric food waste bin produces true, stable compost like you’d find in a cured backyard bin. But the Reencle incorporates an aerobic bacteria, the lifecycle of which is managed (in part) by precise temperature controls in the bin, to create a much more stable and finished output suitable for soil amendment than Lomi. 

I shared more details about the output from Lomi and FoodCycler in this post. You can see what they look like and how they compare to the output from the Reencle. Visual assessments indicate that the Reencle output is more akin to something suitable for soil amendment than the flaky, dried food scraps from the other machines. Soil tests from Penn State agree.

Marketing (Reencle vs. Lomi)

I also have an issue with Lomi’s marketing. Their claims are misleading, particularly regarding their output being finished compost. It just isn’t close to compost (which has a specific scientific definition). 

While other brands don’t call out Lomi outright due to legal risks (which I fully understand and respect), I’ve spoken to Lomi, Mill, and FoodCycler reps. Let’s say there’s consensus in the composting community that Lomi marketing leaves something to be desired. 

I don’t particularly trust the brand, and it’s the last electric composter I’d recommend. I’d argue the brand has left a bad taste about electric kitchen bin solutions in the mouths of many who know a thing or two about real composting, and better actors in the space are working to reeducate about what these bins truly can and cannot do. 

Reencle vs. Mill

The Mill bin is a mix between a Lomi and a Reenecle. Similar to the Reencle, it processes food waste continuously with paddles (instead of grinding), which, as I mentioned above, is a much easier cadence to manage.

Like the Lomi, the Mill is a food dehydrator, not a composter. It does not use active microbes to break down the food like composting. (The Lomi has some pods you can use, which they claim make the output more like compost, but I’m skeptical they do much.)

Mill uses a subscription model and did not offer an outright purchase option at the time this post was published. The subscription cost includes using the bin and the option to send your food grounds back to process those food grounds into chicken feed. 

I’ve shared more extensively about my thoughts on the Mill bin and why sending food waste across the country through the mail is bananas. I also don’t love the idea of processing food waste at home and sending it out for further processing (into chicken feed) when we can create systems that could keep the food waste useful in a more local way. I give the company credit for being transparent about what the product does technically and how the output can be used.

I’m not a huge fan of their product because I think it’s over-engineered. I think the Reencle is a much better alternative because it more fully processes food waste and makes it easier to use at a hyper-local level (thereby reducing transportation and processing costs—environmentally and financially) while offering a similar user experience from day to day. 

Reencle vs. FoodCycler

The FoodCycler (distributed by Vitamix) was my first electric kitchen bin. It’s very similar to a Lomi, except the company is much more forthcoming about the product’s capabilities and limitations. I wrote a review of the FoodCycler a few years ago when I owned it (and I liked it at first). 

But after quite a bit of use and experience with other products, I think there are better options at similar prices. I recommend the Reencle Prime over the FoodCycler because the Reencle Prime has a more streamlined user experience and a much better final product. 

But haven’t you been a long-time critic of electric food waste bins?

It’s no secret I’ve not been a fan of electric compost bins (or electric food waste bins, as they are more accurately called in most cases) for several years. I’ve written several blog posts about my thoughts on them that show up near the top of certain web search results. I was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal for my brutally honest and critical questioning about the viability of these products as mass-market solutions. 

I get particularly frustrated when I see influencers (who have a lot of trust from their audience) promoting appliances that aren’t consistent with the product’s efficacy, especially because I know some of these companies pay big money for that promotion. 

I want to find ways to make composting more accessible for everyone. I am a composting nerd who sees food waste as a serious problem that needs myriad solutions for many different communities and circumstances. 

I have no personal motivation for these products to fail (in fact, I could make handsome commissions on selling them to you). I just hate seeing people waste a bunch of money on machines that don’t do a great job and offer marginal benefits for a hefty sticker price, especially when the financial profits are handsome for those already swimming in cash. 

So yes, my recommendation of the Reencle Prime composter is a departure from what I’ve shared about several of its competitors. And yes, I make a commission if you buy one of them with my affiliate link. So I’ll be fully transparent about how my experience with Reencle transpired and why I think it’s the best electric compost bin on the market. 

My experience with Reencle

Like all trendy products, Reencle first showed up in my Instagram ads. I pretty much ignored it. Then I received an email from a company representative asking if they could send me a machine to try and review. He specifically noted my content that was critical of similar bins and promised he thought I would find their bin different. 

I responded to the email with some pointed questions, and he addressed them. I offered to try it without promises about any content or review related to the product. I was honest about my intent to be forthcoming on the blog, even if I didn’t like it. They sent me the Reencle Prime machine in October 2023 with no strings attached. 

I set up the machine near my kitchen and tested it for two months. It turns out I liked it! The functionality differences were marginal in some ways and significant in others relative to their competition. The Reencle Prime isn’t perfect, but the features were “better enough” to give me comfort in recommending it to family and friends (like… the IRL kind of family and friends where I have to face them later and justify why I told them to spend $500 on something and risk that they end up not liking it). 

My husband, my dad, and one of my sisters pushed back, asking how I would write positive content about this thing when I trashed the other ones (no pun intended) for so long. That’s an easy question for me to answer. We should always be willing to reassess our opinions when we get new information. The Reencle Prime offered new features and functionality not available in the other models, leading me to arrive at a different conclusion about whether or not I should recommend it. 

So here we are, and I’m recommending the Reencle Prime to a subset of people who I think could benefit from partial processing of food scraps in their home kitchens to make food waste reduction easier and more accessible. I’m working with the brand, and I’m an affiliate. And if I didn’t like the product, I’d be writing a very different post. I hope my past work supports that authenticity. 

Why buy Reencle Prime despite my electric compost bin criticism?

I touched on these points in the beginning, but I’ll summarize them to explain why I think the Reencle Prime electric compost bin is a good option for some people. 

• Easier Processing | Continuous processing gives greater flexibility to the timing of adding food scraps and removing finished output. This felt MUCH easier to manage than other food waste bins. 
• Better Final Product | Because it’s almost finished compost, the final product is much more viable for use no matter where you live. It is not perfectly stable compost, so it needs a week or so in soil to finish curing. But it’s far from dehydrated food scraps (and won’t attract animals like the FoodCycler and Lomi output did when I sprinkled it in my garden bed mulch). I’ve been sprinkling the output in my grass and wood chip mulch occasionally to test with no issues.

Who should buy the Reencle Prime electric compost bin?

The Reencle Prime is not for everyone. Save money if you don’t need an electric compost bin to divert your food scraps from the trash, and don’t buy it. But this might be the tool that gets people over the composting hurdle or makes it accessible when it might not otherwise be. Here are a few groups of people who might be good candidates for a Reencle Prime.

• Apartment Dwellers | If you don’t have a place to dispose of your food waste other than the trash (no pick up service, drop off location, etc…), the Reencle Prime processes the food scraps enough that you can sprinkle them on community grass in a park or around trees and bushes in public spaces. The volume of the finished product isn’t that large, so it won’t be overly burdensome to do this. And should we see the day when so many people have Reencle Prime bins that this becomes a menace due to volume, then collection services and drop-off bins for such materials will be more than viable for community investment. 
• (Some) Green Bin Collection Users | If you have a green bin pick-up service or drop-off location and can keep food scraps “as is” in a bucket or bin until the collection date, don’t waste your money on purchasing or running a Reencle Prime. But if you can’t get past collecting food scraps or have some circumstance where processing them before collection would get you over the hurdle of not throwing them in the trash, a Reencle Prime is better than tossing food waste in the landfill (and it’s better than it’s competitors at being the middle step).
• Home owners without access to composting | If you can’t make composting work at home or don’t have a neighbor who can share their bin with you, the Reencle Prime processes the compost sufficiently so you can store it in a bin for many months and use it as soil amendment around your yard in spring (or any time of year). Mix it into garden beds, lawns, and around trees and shrubs. Your food waste will help your yard and gardens flourish. 

How much output do you generate?

This will vary for each person depending on how much you add to the machine. As a family of four, we eat at home and add scraps most days. I guess we have a moderate volume of food waste relative to other four-person families. We generate about 3-4 cups per week of finished soil amendment.

How often do you empty the Reencle Prime machine?

Every couple of weeks, I spend 5-10 minutes gathering the finished amendment from the container and adding it to our garden, sprinkling it on our grass, or adding it to a bucket to mix into our garden beds in the spring.

How to use Reencle output/soil amendment

After writing a post about how electric compost bin output is more trash than treasure, you might wonder about my take on the Reencle Prime output. It’s not perfect compost, but I think it’s more usable than most competitor products.

The ReencleMicrobe™ bacteria processes food waste enough that you can collect it in a dry bin for many months and use it in a garden or landscaping project when you’re ready. When you sprinkle it on grass or open spaces, it doesn’t attract animals. Here are a few ways to consider using the Reencle Prime soil amendment product.

• Garden beds | Incorporate it into garden beds as a soil amendment. You can do this as you make it or seasonally. You can save in a container for several months while accumulating and preparing to use it.
• Lawn | Sprinkle it on your grass as you produce it.
• Community park | Sprinkle it on the grass, around trees, etc.. at a community park. No one will notice. It won’t hurt the landscaping, and it may even help.
• Put into a green bin | If you can access a municipal green bin, you can put unprocessed food scraps in it. But for some people, that’s a real hang-up. If a bit of processing to reduce the “yuck factor” gets you across the finish line to compost instead of trash your food waste, this is the best option for the electric kitchen bins.
• Add to your compost bin | If you have a backyard bin, you can add this to your pile. If you don’t have an issue adding unprocessed food waste, you probably don’t need the machine. But some people who live in places with really cold winters or bear country find that processing the scraps in the machine helps make composting easier and safer. As with the green bin, if this is the tool that helps you overcome the hurdle of keeping your food scraps out of the trash, it’s better than not composting at all.
• Give it away | If you can’t use all of the output, you can give it away. I’ve heard people successfully share it with neighbors through Buy Nothing groups. If you have a community garden nearby or are part of a garden group, someone can use it there, too.
• Houseplants??? | Technically, you can put this on your houseplants according to the Reencle manual. While that may be true, it’s not as simple as it sounds. The soil amendment isn’t quite stable finished compost, as noted by the Penn State Extension study I referenced above, so you may need to be careful about how you apply it. Further, unless you have a full-on jungle growing inside your home, it’s unrealistic to expect that the houseplants will need as much nutrients as the machine produces over an extended period. You’ll need to find an alternative use for most of the Reencle output the machine generates.

Who should not buy the Reencle Prime electric compost bin?

Food waste is a huge problem with environmental and equity concerns that reaches every corner of the globe. To solve this problem, we need lots of different solutions throughout the food supply chain. Reencle Prime (or any electric compost bin) is one solution that is a piece of that puzzle, but I don’t think it’s a best-case solution for many people.

If you can compost at home or in a neighbor’s bin or use a community composting option without an electric compost bin, don’t buy any electric compost bin. Save your money. Don’t use the energy it takes to run the machine. It’s fantastic that you have a better solution available.

Unfortunately, too many of us live in communities where composting is woefully inaccessible (often for disappointing reasons, particularly if you live in the United States). Electric compost bins are trying to fill the accessibility gap. In my opinion, some have done this well and others leave enough to be desired that I don’t think they are worth the investment.

Electric compost bins aren’t perfect solutions; they’re tools that help us make progress when better solutions aren’t available. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. There’s no magic inside the machine. But if you think it will meaningfully reduce the amount of food waste you and your family send to the landfill, Reencle Prime is my favorite option on the market right now.

Now, what questions can I answer? I’m an open book about my experiences with these machines, and I would love to hear your honest opinions and experiences. Share in the comments and ask away. I’ll do my best to answer.

See the entire series of articles on electric compost bins.